


Fury's End

by Arrghus



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Metal Gear Music
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2020-12-31 01:08:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21030068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arrghus/pseuds/Arrghus
Summary: [This is an unedited work I no longer have the energy to polish, so I'm releasing it.]In a branch of reality forgotten by time, war is winding to a close.





	1. Chapter 1

Jane Crocker stands grimly on board the bridge of her superyacht slash flying battlefortress. It looks almost exactly like the Dai-Gurren from anime, except designed by someone who isn't a hyperactive teenager and has enough budget to assign more than one color to each surface of the ship. She is wearing a sharp business suit, red on black, with small blue earrings and expertly polished black leather shoes. She didn't always wear leather shoes, but she does now. She polishes them herself, making very certain to remove every last trace of technicolor blood each morning. Faint scarlines trace the left side of her face, surrounding a patch of synthetic skin at the heart of which sits an expertly crafted artificial eye. Its iris is the exact same clear blue as her other eye, but something inside of it flashes red as she frowns.

There would be a grim shadow cast behind Jane, if the room weren't extremely well lit to avoid that exact kind of shenanigan. There are, in fact, no shadows at all on this bridge. Again, this is a circumstance that was not always so, but now is.

The outside of the ship reverberates with the sounds of battle. Countless warships do battle in the upper atmosphere of Earth C, their hulls bristling with laser cannons, actual cannons, and jetpack launching pads. For all the might of their machines, you see, this war is dominated not by vehicles, but by supersoldiers. Trolls who've honed their genetic gifts into deadly weapons zoom through the air, pitting their power against the finest murdermachines carapacian biotech can muster (never forget, they were originally a people embroiled in eternal conflict, for all that the Mayor taught them peace) and humans who, through intense training, deep meditation, or decidedly stranger methods have unlocked the hidden potentials of their species, gaining a chaotic poutpurri of astounding abilities that are as unpredictable as they are potent.

Occasionally a wayward consort finds their way into the conflict. Usually, this results in an immediate cessation of hostilities as both sides quickly usher the hapless creature to safety. Even in a war this cataclysmic, there are some things both sides agree on.

It would be an easy battle. It *should* be an easy battle. Jane's armies outnumber the opposition by a considerable margin, and their resources are much, much larger than anything Karkat's pitiful rebellion can scrape together. The trolls and their more structured abilities do present a problem, yes, but while humanity's grab bag of superpowers are harder to fashion into stable, well-worn battle strategies, they're also harder for the enemy to plan against. In theory, that ought to balance things out, returning everything to the theoretical cakewalk it always was.

Well, there's the ghosts. Hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands and thousands of undead specters spat out by the afterlife and falling from the sky like the meteorites that once brought Jane and her family into the world. The ones that aren't too preoccupied with their own drama or afraid of what dying while dead might do to them have, to a one, joined up with the rebellion and the great work of giving Jane a permanent low-grade migraine.

And then there's Them. The Furies, as Jane has taken to calling them. Four women baptized in the crucible of Sburb, learned in ways of combat no mortal could hope to teach, having each long surpassed the limitations of their respective species and evolved into utter monsters on the battlefield. Once, there were five, but Vriska (Serket, Maryam-Lalonde is thankfully much less dangerous) fortunately left Earth C some time ago, for reasons Jane neither knows nor cares about. If the rest were to do the same, Jane is certain this war would be over within months.

Jade is the worst one. Powerful enough to fight armies and angry enough to attack them over, and over, and over again. It's possible she holds Jane responsible for Dave's disappearance, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. It's possible she doesn't care. Thankfully, she lost most of her teleporting abilities long ago, meaning her swath of destruction is at least geographically confined for the most part. Presently, she is engaged in what was once Ireland, confronting the Odd Gentlemen, thirteen men trained personally by Jane's late father in the dual arts of fashion and hand-to-hand combat. They have standing orders to break up and escape the engagement once the local infrastructure have reached a safe distance. With luck, some of them will survive.

The Brides are an only slightly less horrifying presence. Technically speaking, they are not married, their interspecies union having been legally annulled some years past in an act Jane is not above acknowledging was somewhat pointlessly spiteful. In practice, the two are never seen apart, and their combined prowess tears through personnel and infrastructure like a chainsaw through... well. In addition, unlike Jade the two are almost impossible to distract or misdirect, thanks to Lalonde's irritatingly prescient tactical acumen. (She's always "Lalonde" in Jane's head these days, in spite of the risk of... confusion). The only way to pin them down is to strike with overwhelming force, a tactic with drawbacks that are becoming clearer by the day.

Jane is losing this war. This is also becoming clearer by the day. Inch by inch, her forces are being driven back, and what was once a guerilla war by an obviously outmatched and out-publicized faction has risen to become a popular insurgence holding territories of its own. Many of those territories are human- or carapacian-dominated areas. Even her own species is turning against her now. Jane's jaw flexes.

Jane glances at monitor four, and there she is. The reason this entire battle is taking place. It feels weird to call Meenah the least dangerous of the four, but that's what she is. The reincarnation of an ancient alien empress responsible for the death of trillions, Peixes is the embodiment of why Jane's efforts are necessary. Her skill in close quarters combat is unparallelled, she has the ability to directly drain the life energy of her opponents like yet another kind of vampire, and thanks to the ring she's wearing (a temporal duplicate of the one keeping sweet sweet sweet Calliope alive) she's effectively immortal, her weak spot reduced to a single finger. On the other hand, she's predictable. Manageable. The Thief-Heiress has made it clear that the only thing she considers worthy of strategic interest is Jane's own head on a trident, and made it her personal mission to hunt her down. This makes it easy enough to pull her away from objects of actual strategic import by simply repositioning herself, for instance, inside an impenetrable battle station surrounded by an army of elite soldiers, perfectly organized by the lightning reactions of Jane's own intellect. This time. This time a Fury dies.

[==>](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21030068/chapters/50019314)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please use the ==> link instead of the Next Chapter button.


	2. ==>

Meenah Peixes is surveying the battle from atop the deck of the *SS I'm Comin To Fuckin Krill You Jane Crocker.* Speakers built into the hull play Metal Gear Revengeance music (which is odd, since that game was never released on either pre- or post-scratch Earth). Presently, the song playing is Stranger I Remain. Her arm draws back, and a trident appears in it. In a flash, she jabs her arm forward, and the trident goes flying, hitting a human woman holding a delicate-looking wand out of the sky and tearing her leg apart. Candy red blood drips down and is lost in the chaos. The woman's companion grabs her and pulls her to safety before she can crash. Two down, then.

She turns around as her squad assembles, riding up from the ground below on their rocket-powered tiger claws. The Killer Qu33ns are an elite squad of six highly trained ghost Nepetas (Scarface, PJ, Arms, Hats, Tiny, and Sweetie), and one Meulin for tactical overwatch. They answer directly to Meenah herself and move with perfect synchronicity, specializing in taking out the kind of large biomechanical horrors Jane is so fond of deploying. Meenah remains tickled pink that there exists a version of Leijon that's trained from childhood in the art of monster hunting. They're waiting on her now.

MEENAH: NO SP-E-EC)(  
MEENAH: YOU ALL KNOW WAT-ER YOUR ORD-ERS  
MEENAH: FUCK BITC)(-ES, GET RIC)(-ES  
MEENAH: KILL-ER QU-E-ENS, GO  
NEPETAS: :33< 333333333333!!!!!!

They blast off into the sky like a great school of flying fish, with Meenah at the helm. Using her bright fuschia wings as a lead, she guides them up into the chaos, and they cut great swathes out of the combat lines as the opposition scrambles to get out of their way. A winged knight-type carapacian, twenty-five feet tall with hooves that can cut steel, is too slow to get out of the way as they envelop it, tearing at its skin and cutting off critical sinews and the odd artery. Crippled, it soars toward the ground in a semi-controlled landing. Showing mercy is annoying, but it wins the rebellion points, and leaving wounded might lure Jane out of hiding. Also, it's faster, albeit harder. Today, they're on a strict schedule.

They circle around the perimeter now, trying to surround the opposition's battle lines within their own, pushing them down toward the surface like sharks pushing minnows toward the surface of the water, a metaphor and battle tactic Meenah herself invented. The enclosure is not perfect, and even if it was, many would be able to escape, digging through the earth, phasing through the barrier of bodies, or simply through extreme bravado and mastery of jetpack parkour. Thinning the herd doesn't matter much. It helps, actually, as it makes the main target easier to spot.

MEENAH: M-EULIN  
MEENAH: do you sea her

They break and hover above the battle for a few moments. Meulin peers down into chaos. While her battle skills aren't the greatest, she has a particular talent that makes her indispensable for this task. Moving a finger from one of the massive ships to another like a dowsing rod, she furrows her brow in concentration. Finally she points triumphantly at one of the ships near the bottom before elaborating in rapidly flashing signs. As per usual, Jane is playing strategist from a safe location, more comfortable using her admittedly impressive brains than her god tier magic to aid in the battle. Of course, things might've been different if Meenah hadn't presently been hunting her.

It all goes like clockwork for a bit. Sweetie and Arms grab Scarface and Tiny and toss them down into the chaos, the sheer acceleration carrying them through the battle lines and into the enemy's softer backline, rocket-powered personnel scrambling to keep up with their speed. PJ does her signature magic trick, swapping places with Tiny and then Hats, who disguises herself in a flurry of captchaloguing shenanigans and heads for one of the ships blocking the way to Jane. Arms tosses Tiny in again and PJ repeats her doubleswap to bring in Sweetie, who lands on another ship and starts attacking it directly, their sharp claws and muscular hands tearing through the dense sheet metal like it's made of cardboard. By the time anyone has time to register what's happening, Meenah and the remainder of the team are running interference. It's a fun, straightforward operation.

And then there's a sharp pain in her side, and she dies for a few moments.

As her consciousness blinks back from the void, Meenah looks up to see Jane standing above her, the deep black of her suit swimming as Meenah's eyes adjust to wakefulness. Chains rattle as she tries to move her arms.

JANE: Hello, Meenah.  
JANE: I took the liberty of emptying your sylladex before returning your ring.  
JANE: I want to see what you have to say for yourself.

Meenah spits out a broken tooth. A new one is already growing in its place. She looks Jane straight in the eye.

MEENAH: had a good run  
MEENAH: got rid of skullface  
MEENAH: and youre gonna flounder soon enough  
MEENAH: nubsy dont need me no more  
JANE: Oh but I think you underestimate your importance. If I recall, Vantas is quite fond of you, and we all know how delightfully distressed he gets when his loved ones are in pain.  
MEENAH:  
MEENAH: wow  
MEENAH: you dont quit do you  
MEENAH: goin so low youre seein angler fish  
JANE: Oh come on! Even leaving aside the things your species has cost me personally, you're Meenah fucking Peixes. I have a file on you you know. It's not like I'm going to do anything to you that you haven't already done to your own people. Anyone rememmber Damara Megido?

Jane spreads her arms wide, and the various nameless mooks that are probably standing behind her in the chamber give her mostly puzzled looks. A few nod in what might be recognition. Jane puts her hand to her temple and theatrically massages her growing headache.

MEENAH: crocker get your head in the game  
MEENAH: you cant psyche me out telling me things i already know  
MEENAH: were both bad bitches  
MEENAH: i fuckin know that  
JANE: I am merely trying to create a world where humans can actually live without the threat of trolls taking over around the corner.  
MEENAH: man its kind of adorable the way you keep talkin us up  
MEENAH: i really like you for that crocker  
MEENAH: i want you to know that before i die

Meenah winks and Jane backs away a little at her brazen black solicitation.

JANE: Goodnes, this interrogation is not going according to schedule.  
JANE: And what do you mean, "talking us up"? You're trolls. Have you even seen Alternia?  
MEENAH: uh  
MEENAH: no?

Jane stutters.

JANE: No?

The back of the chamber explodes as the *Coming To Kill You* crashes diagonally through the hull of Jane's ship, speakers blasting Red Sun at full volume. The Killer Qu33ns swarm from its hull, PJ engaging Jane directly as Scarface cuts Meenah's chains and hands her a fresh trident. As Meenah gets to her feet, PJ swaps her in, and the daughters of Crocker clash tridents.

MEENAH: no  
MEENAH: im not from alternia  
MEENAH: im from B-EFORUS  
MEENAH: AKA SNOOZ-EPLAN-ET

Meenah goes low, and manages to hook her trident under Jane's in such a way that Jane loses her grip and the weapon goes flying. Jane takes several steps back defensively before summoning a duplicate from her modus.

MEENAH: you know crocker  
MEENAH: left to their own devices the earth c trolls wouldve turned into the same borin assholes they were on my snoozefest of a homeworld  
MEENAH: but you pushed them into this  
MEENAH: made a world of war to turn them tough  
MEENAH: made a world where a bad bitch like myself can live a good life without fuckin everythin up for everybody  
MEENAH: so i want to thank you

Jane's back is against the wall, and Meenah's trident stabs at her neck and pierces deep into the metal wall behind, trapping Jane between two of its tines. Staring in horror at Meenah's demented grin, Jane drops her own weapon and quivers.

MEENAH: for everyfin

A wind blows through the hole left by the *Coming To Kill You*. It is the wind of change. Jane Crocker is left with a Choice.

[KINDNESS](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21030068/chapters/50019575)

[CRUELTY](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21030068/chapters/50019386)


	3. Cruelty

The speakers on the *Coming To Kill You* shift tracks. They're playing It Has To Be This Way now.

JANE: Thank you?

Jane grabs the trident. Her eyes burn with fury.

JANE: Do you have any idea how condescending that is?

The trident begins to shake as Jane pulls it, inch by inch, out of the metal surrounding it. Meenah stares at her, her face gradually filling with a murderous glee.

JANE: 'Oh golly gee, miss Crocker, how nice of you to wreck the planet so my wretched self can live up to her full potential as a mass murderer on the field of battle instead of in a dark alleyway somewhere.'  
JANE: If you had opinions you should have expressed them on the political stage, like any sensible person would. It's too late now.

Meenah lets go of the trident and leaps back, her legs carrying her an easy three meters even without using her god tier flight. As she touches down, she jabs a foot hard into the floor, causing the metal to buckle and a floor plate to break free. Grabbing it with both hands without pause, Meenah flings it like an oversized throwing star in Jane's direction.

Snarling loudly, Jane intercepts the metal plate with Meenah's trident, a loud clank echoing out as the two collide. Her eyes widen in shock as Meenah appears from behind it, already holding Jane's dropped trident and aiming right for Jane's exposed legs. With herculean force, she wrests the other end of her trident to catch the attack, and the metal plate goes flying.

MEENAH: sucky plan failed  
MEENAH: guess youll die

They then have one of the most badass fight scenes in all of Paradox Space. Weapons clash. Cuts and stab wounds send blood flying in long arcs across the floor and walls before closing up in blue-white glimmers of magic. Fraymotifs are called forth and collide in enormous beam struggles. The loudspeakers boom across it all. Close your eyes now, and imagine it animated by someone who knows how to make action scenes, like Platinum Games, or Studio Trigger.

It's a close battle, but at last Meenah lies on her back, breathing heavily, her neck trapped between the tines of her own trident. Her right hand has been severed, and isn't growing back, the Ring of Life on her left glowing unevenly, its power taxed from the battle. Jane holds a second trident above her chest, raising it triumphantly before the final strike.

In that one instant, Jane lowers her guard, and in that one instant, there is a terrible roar, and her head flies from its shoulders.

Kanaya Maryam lands on one side of the headless Crocker and finishes the long, heavy arc of her chainsaw. On her opposite side, Rose's feet settle gently onto the ground, wands buzzing with a shining light.

Jane's head tumbles through the air for a moment. Then it stops, rights itself, and falls back onto her neck, the seam rapidly stitching itself together.

JANE: Maryam.  
KANAYA: -Lalonde

The Brides move as a single beast. Decades of marriage combined with the the instincts of a Seer of Light allow the slightest nudge, wink, or frown to speak volumes in an instant, and the range of Rose's magic combined with Kanaya's speed mean they effectively control the entire battlefield.

Jane, however, is stronger than both of them, and while she cannot catch them, she can stay in place, defend herself, and wait for an opportunity.

[MISSING REEL]

Kanaya's chainsaw pushes deep into Jane's abdomen. Rose floats behind her wife, her arms on Kanaya's arms, the tips of her wands on Kanaya's chainsaw. A spiraling mixture of light and darkness pours from the wands through the chainsaw and into Jane's body.

Jane's eyes are watering now.

JANE: I just want...

Then, she explodes.

[THE END](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21030068/chapters/50019662)

[CONTINUE](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21030068/chapters/50019536)


	4. ==>

Kanaya and Rose have barely the time to take one perfectly synchronized breath before the viscera of Jane's body flies back together with a thunderclap, the shockwave sending both Brides into the wall with a slam, and they sink to the floor unconscious. Jane pants for a moment before staring with a mix of frustration and triumph at their unconscious forms.

JANE: I JUST WANT MY LIFE BACK! IS THAT SO WRONG???  
KARKAT: YES.

Karkat stands beside Meenah's curled up body. The Killer Qu33ns stand behind him, forming an impromptu honor guard while casting wary glances at Meenah, who is still unconscious and slowly fading from existence. Her ring, you see, is currently adorning Karkat's hand, which is closed into a fist and surrounded by an ominous red aura, less light and more a tangible, almost fluid energy, which hums and beats. Long twisting tendrils extend from it, at first going out in all directions, but soon converging on Jane. She tries to escape, but it's futile. The Miles have her. They form a dense forest around her, thick branches cutting off her escape before branching out into fine brambles that keep her from moving her arms and legs. She hangs, almost crucified, as Karkat slowly walks toward her.

KARKAT: CROCKER, WHEN WILL YOU GET IT THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL THAT THE LIFE YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD NEVER EXISTED. YOU'VE BEEN LIED TO, SAME AS THE REST OF US. GET WITH THE PROGRAM.  
KARKAT: SO WHAT IF YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD A FUTURE THERE. IT WAS STILL A SHIT WORLD, CONTROLLED BY THE CONDESCE, AND YOU WERE NEVER GOING TO GET TO DO THE THINGS YOU WANTED TO, NOT REALLY. YOU HAVE TO LET GO.  
JANE: You think you can hold me, Vantas? You think ANY OF YOU CAN HOLD ME???  
JANE: All you've done is put EVERY PESON I WANT TO KILL in one convenient location, starting with you.

Jane flexes, and the finer capillaries holding her start cracking, the energy inside of them oozing out and weakening the rest of the structure. Karkat watches her, and while his eyes crease with worry, he doesn't let up, his fist tightening and pulsing deeper, keeping the Miles intact through sheer amplitude.

KARKAT: THIS STARTED OUT AS MEENAH'S PLAN. SHE WANTED TO GIVE YOU ONE LAST CHANCE AT REDEMPTION, YOU DUMB FUCK.  
JANE: Redemption?!!! How conceited can you get? You cut my torso in half!  
KARKAT: YEAH, NO, KANAYA WAS JUST TRYING TO KILL YOU. YOU PROBABLY ALREADY UNDERSTAND THIS, BUT THE MARYAM-LALONDE FAMILY IS EXTREMELY UNITED IN THEIR HATE FOR YOU AND EVERYTHING YOU STAND FOR. I CAN'T SAY I BLAME THEM, YOU HAVE BEEN TRYING TO PRETTY MUCH KILL OFF OUR ENTIRE SPECIES FOR A WHILE NOW.

With a mighty effort, Jane wrests one hand free, and starts tearing the veins around her apart. More weird energy blood pulses out of them every moment. Karkat is starting to look strained, and the ring on his finger flickers ominously.

JANE: And this was your plan? Kill your own girlfriend so you can be a macho man and finish me off yourself? Because I don't know if you've noticed, but it's NOT GOING PEACHY KEEN SO FAR FOR YOU!

Karkat is silent for a moment. It looks like there's something on the tip of his tongue, but he's holding it back with almost as much effort as he's putting into holding onto the Miles.

Finally, with a pulse of blue light racing down her arms, Jane tears apart the last of the ropes holding her in place, sending a shockwave up the Miles and back to Karkat's ring, which shudders for a moment, and cracks. The red light fades, and only then does Karkat open his mouth.

KARKAT: THE PLAN WAS TO GET THE KILLER QU33NS TO TAKE OUT YOUR COMMUNICATIONS SO YOU CAN'T GET A WARNING AHEAD OF TIME, AND HOLD YOU IN PLACE FOR LONG ENOUGH.

Jane is racing for Karkat, and her hand almost reaches his throat when she gets his meaning. She stops for a moment, eyes widening, and then suddenly tosses her head to the side as a thin line of power passes by Karkat's head and hits the spot where Jane was a moment ago. The line is a black so deep that nothing within it can be discerned, and its presence twists light around it, giving it a thin halo of pale white light, like a black hole stretched out into a spear.

The line fades within moments, and at its point of origin the walls split apart in two with an awful creaking sound, a gaping hole torn open seemingly by its own volition, as Jade Harley walks into the room.

She is much different now, from when you last saw her. The Green Sun is gone, and her skin no longer crackles with green lightning, but surges with waves of a deep blackness in which can be glimpsed the light of stars. Her hair and clothes are woven in with black ribbons, which float in the wind around her like a dark halo, and ripple with her every move. Her eyes are filled with hate.

JADE: .

Jane grabs Karkat by the throat and jabs her trident against his chest, just allowing it to pierce his skin. Karkat gasps and flails uselessly against her. She smiles at Jane, opening her mouth to begin negotiations, but Jade doesn't even hesitate, she just accelerates through the air with a suddenness that leaves a cracking sound behind it as the air itself struggles to keep up with her. In an instant, her hand is on Jane's hand, pushing its sides together to force the fingers apart. The next, ribbons curl around Karkat's body and flings him backwards, flailing comically as he tries to land with as few bruises as possible.

JANE: Very well. I  
JADE: .

Jade's grip on Jane's hand tightens further as she rips Jane's arm off. It starts regenerating almost instantly, but Jane still looks at her with shock and retreats as she raises her trident one-handed to fend off Jade.

Jade's attacks come from all directions, her ribbons moving in tandem with her arms to grasp at limbs and weapons as Jade retrieves swords, hammers, wands, and guns, mixing her attacks to keep Jane off balance.

As Jane parries an especially vicious swordstrike, one of the ribbons finds its mark, wrapping itself around her wrist and trident both, tying them together. An instant later, Jade's hand is on Jane's, grabbing it tightly. Darkness surges from Jade's arm and reaches halfway to Jane's elbow before Jane rips it from her grasp. When it fades, Jane's hand is gone, and a silvery field covers the stump of her arm. It doesn't regenerate.

Without hesitating, Jane's trident blurs, and she severs her own arm above the elbow while her sylladex tosses a pile of aerosolized explosives between them as a distraction.

Another black beam pierces the cloud of smoke, hitting Jane right between the eyes. Key nerves severed, she stumbles as her brain knits itself together, but it's too late. Jade's hand is on her chest, and the air around them ripples with force. There is a sound like a thunderclap, and Jane Crocker is nowhere to be seen.

Jade stands, looks around. She takes a deep breath, then another. She stumbles, and like a puppet with its strings cut, falls forward, her face finding the floor at speed.

[==>](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21030068/chapters/50019611)


	5. Kindness

The speakers on the *Coming To Kill You* shift tracks. They're playing Stains of Time now.

JANE: Crockerbot! Give me everything on Beforus!

Jane's left eye turns a deep red as the artificial intelligence within executes her orders, scanning its massive databases for anything on the ancient planet Meenah hails from. It reaches for Jane's military intelligence network and, finding the connection disrupted somehow, redirects its informational tendrils toward the internet, sifting through every history book, every archive of relics, every Porrim, Aranea, or even Kankri with a blog. Two thousand, seven hundred, and thirty five milliseconds after the command has been given, it returns its report, flashing subliminal messages into Jane's brainstem and imparting onto Jane the fullness of her error.

JANE: What did I do...

Her arm reaches for Meenah's trident and pulls it out with an effortlessness that belies the weapon's weight and the solidity of the wall it is embedded in. Meenah staggers back under the force.

JANE: What did I do???

Her higher mind occupied with guilt, Jane attacks Meenah like one possessed, her body acting out the emotions surging through her brain in a lethal kind of interpretive dance.

JANE: WHAT DID I DO?????

Jane swings her trident widely, and it hits Meenah with a force that reverberates through the room and cracks the walls open. Chaotic light and the sounds of battle stream in, louder than before.

Meenah falls to the ground and is still, her body healing slowly, the Ring of Life taxed from the intensity of Jane's attack.

Jane sinks to the ground and weeps.

Outside, the sounds of battle slowly recede, replaced with sounds of triumph as Kanaya, Rose, even Karkat and Jade arrive and enter the chamber. They discuss what to do with her, but she is oblivious to their words.

As Meenah eventually gets up and walks over to the rest, limping slightly, one word catches her attention though.

ROSE: ... ring ...

Eyes widening in sudden realization, Jane suddenly gets up and, before anyone has time to react, she grabs for Meenah's hand and rips her finger off, Ring of Life still on it. Holding the finger up in the air, her body glows with an intense blue light as the energies of the Ring resonate with her own power, awakened far past its limits in a moment of intense emotion and epiphany.

JANE: I can fix this.

The light shines across the planet, and all over, the corpses of those killed by the war rise, rejuvenated by the overwhelming power of the Maid of Life. Trolls, humans, carapacians, consorts get out of their mass graves and look around themselves wondering what has happened.

There is a sound like a large bomb going off, and a shockwave tosses everyone in the room away from Jane, flying like ragdolls and striking the walls. Only Jade remains standing, though the effort of doing so causes sweat to fall from her brow.

In the middle of the room, Jane stands, her hand still holding Meenah's finger. Her ring is duller now, its power overloaded from the exertion of Jane's recent miracle. Slowly, the finger begins to fade from existence without the ring's power to maintain it.

Jane's mouth is halfway through a manically happy smile when Jade's fist collides with her chin. Existence contorts itself around the impact point, and Jane's entire body is schlorped into that single point and vanishes with a whipcrack. Jade stands towering above Jane's sudden nonexistence, her face contorted into a rictus of fury. Below her, on the ground, Meenah's finger still lies. She kicks it expertly onto Meenah's body, but proximity does not return the Thief to life. Jade looks at the fading corpse of a woman who has never done her life any favours, and tears well up in her eyes. She stumbles, her body suddenly refusing to stand straight, and she falls forward, her face hitting the ground with an unpleasant sound.

[==>](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21030068/chapters/50019611)


	6. ==>

The savior of trollkind lies face down on the floor of Jane's ruined airship. It looks exactly like the time Dave was face down after trying to jump kick his bro's katana in half, though nobody present knows this. Her ribbons lie tangled around her, twisting into something vaguely reminiscent of the Space symbol, only in all black.

Slowly, everyone in the room gets up, adjusts to the ringing in their ears, shakes their limbs out, and waits, watching Jade's prone body intently. Karkat is among the last to get up, but when he does, he walks over to her and sits down with his legs crossed.

KARKAT: HI JADE.  
JADE: hi karkat.  
KARKAT: IS... IS SHE GONE?

Jade's voice is just at the edge of audibility as she murmurs physics too advanced for anyone else in the room, anyone but a handful of Earth C's top experts, really, to understand.

JADE: ... folded spacetime ... manifold is three-dimensionally discontinuous with earth c ... wont get back without dimensional ... degree from jade university.

There's a pause as they both don't mention the *other* method she could get out. Karkat raises one hand and gives an awkward thumbs up to the room as everyone collectively exhales and begins slowly filing out of the room. Rose lays one hand on Meenah's slowly fading corpse and captchalogues it before she, too, leaves. They all have things to do. It's just Jade and Karkat now.

JADE: karkat, can I kiss you?

There is a pause as Karkat chooses his words carefully. He is so careful these days.

KARKAT: YEAH. I THINK MEENAH WOULD BE OK WITH THAT. WE TALKED SOME ABOUT WHAT TO DO IF THINGS TURNED OUT LIKE THIS.

The kiss is slow, and awkward. They both have rather too many teeth for it to be comfortable, and after everything that has passed between them, in love and in war, none of their feelings are easy anymore. When it's done, Jade's face sinks back into the floor. 

Karkat puts his hand in her hair and lets it sink down into the deep fluff of it.

KARKAT: JADE. I'M SORRY.  
KARKAT: I SHOULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING AND DONE SOMETHING EARLIER.   
KARKAT: I *DID* SEE IT COMING, I WAS JUST BEING RETA... BEING AN IDIOT ABOUT DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT BECAUSE I WANTED TO STAY WITH YOU TWO. I SHOULD HAVE TALKED MORE TO JANE, TRIED TO STEER HER OFF THIS PATH BEFORE SHE BECAME... BEFORE ALL THIS HAPPENED. IT'S ALL MY FAULT, AS FUCKING ALWAYS.

Karkat can feel the skin on the back of Jade's head under her hair. She's shaking slightly.

KARKAT: I LOVE YOU. YOU KNOW THAT, RIGHT? YOU DESERVE THE WORLD, JADE. AND I DON'T JUST MEAN PLATONIC LOVE. I... WHAT WE HAD, BEFORE. IT WASN'T REALLY WHAT I WANTED. I DON'T THINK IT WAS WHAT YOU WANTED, EITHER. BUT IT WASN'T ALL BAD. I DID ENJOY IT, WHILE IT LASTED. I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT. AND I THINK... I THINK... I THINK WE ALL DID.

He's crying now. Faintly red tears drop down into Jade's back, soiling the tattered remains of her uniform.

JADE: karkat.  
JADE: its ok.  
KARKAT:   
JADE: because.

Jade's hands find the floor and she slowly lifts herself up onto her hands and knees. She turns her head to look at him, and that is when he sees that she's smiling, doggy ear to doggy ear.

JADE: im gonna bring dave back. :D  
JADE: woof  
KARKAT: YOU  
KARKAT: WHAT

As Jade's head rises, Karkat's hand has fallen down onto her shoulder, but he can still feel her shaking. The vibrations are spreading throughout her body. It's anger. Jade's face is the most serene and beautiful smile he's ever seen, but she's furious.

JADE: im gonna find dave, and bring him back, and then you, me, him, and meenah, we can all figure out who we are to each other. :D

Karkat searches Jade's face for the thin pain-lines he has struggled so hard to recognize. He remembers the years he's studied that face, the many things she has never let him see in it. He never really learned to read her as a lover. Only now, as a commander, does he understand something of what goes on in Jade's mind. It's fucked up, he thinks. It's very fucked up.

Karkat retrieves a sofa from his sylladex. Slowly, gently, he helps Jade up into it, until she's lying on her back, leaning against Karkat with her head on his chest. It's a thing they used to do, though usually it was Karkat lying in Jade's lap.

KARKAT: JADE.   
KARKAT: I.  
KARKAT: NO.  
KARKAT: BRINGING DAVE BACK WON'T FIX THINGS. THINGS WEREN'T FIXED BEFORE.  
JADE: but you LOVE him!

Jade looks up at Karkat and there is such tenderness in her eyes.

JADE: you love him and i was always trying to push you together and i fucked everything up and now hes gone and youll NEVER be together and its ALL MY FAULT! D:

Jade is shivering in Karkat's lap now. Her belly moves up and down with arrythmic breathing. It takes several seconds, now, before she pulls herself together and that almost-perfect smile returns. Karkat puts one hand on her cheek and feels the wetness of it. Softly, then, (because he's learned to be soft when he needs to, though it took him years and years) he says

KARKAT: (WHEREVER DAVE IS, WHETHER HE'S DEAD OR ASCENDED OR HAD HIS SOUL TRAPPED IN A BOX OR SOMETHING... HE'S PROBABLY NOT IN THIS UNIVERSE ANYMORE.)  
KARKAT: (AND I'M NOT THE TIME GUY BUT I SPENT ENOUGH TIME LISTENING TO HIS RAMBLINGS THAT I'M PRETTY SURE THAT MEANS IT DOESN'T MATTER IF WE TRY TO GET HIM BACK NOW OR IN A HUNDRED YEARS.)  
KARKAT: (AND IT SUCKS THAT HE'S NOT HERE BUT IF WE'RE FIXING THINGS WE HAVE TO TAKE THE TIME TO DO IT RIGHT.)

Karkat looks down into Jade's face. She stopped aging some time ago now, and even with the bruises and scars, she doesn't look a day over thirty. He doesn't either, thanks to Meenah. They both try to pretend that doesn't factor into his decisions.

KARKAT: (WE'RE FUCKED UP, JADE. ALTERNIA WAS FUCKED UP. EARTH WAS FUCKED UP. WE CAME FROM FUCKED UP PLANETS AND NOW WE'RE FUCKED UP. WE NEED TO... I DON'T KNOW, UNFUCK OURSELVES AND STOP BEING SUCH FUCKASSES SOMEHOW.)

That does it. The old in-joke breaks the tension and Jade starts tittering. Soon, she starts crying. Karkat looks up, and in the remains of the doorway stands Kanaya, holding up a hand to indicate their time is up. He can't leave Jade alone, though, so after he gets up he gently lifts her and carries her bridal style to the doorway. It's slow and a little clumsy, she's bigger than him and he spent most of the war behind a desk, but he makes it work. For her. As he passes Kanaya, she takes up after him, and they walk in grim silence as the most powerful doggy woman in Paradox Space holds onto his jacket so tightly that her nails tear through the material and bawls softly into his shoulder.

Eventually they arrive. A podium has been prepared. Karkat hands the crying Jade over to Kanaya. She takes her with an effortless grace. Michelangelo would weep if he could see it.

Then he walks to the podium, stands before the press and two armies that not so long ago were at each other's throats, and gives the greatest, most leaderly speech in the history is Paradox Space. It begins a little like this.

KARKAT: PEOPLE OF EARTH C. TROLLS. HUMANS. CARAPACIANS. CONSORTS. CHERUBS, IF ANY OF YOU ARE WATCHING.  
KARKAT: WE FUCKED UP. WE NEED YOUR HELP.

[==>](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21030068/chapters/50019662)


	7. ==>

The path Rose follows is long and circuitous, but eventually she reaches her destination, a small cottage in an undisclosed location that is the home of Calliope.

my home.

rose steps in throUgh my Unlocked door. she does not bother to knock.

CALLIOPE: hello lovely. ^U^  
CALLIOPE: what Unexpected company.  
ROSE: Calliope. I've come to bargain.  
CALLIOPE: how splendid! please darling, do have some tea.

rose sits down. she glares at me.

ROSE: I don't want to be here for any longer than I absolutely have to. So here's the deal. See this ring?

rose's arm reaches into her sylladex throUgh mysterious means and she grabs the ring off of meenah's finger.

ROSE: You know what it is. I figure you're more familiar with these than anyone else on the planet. Fix it, or I'm taking yours.  
CALLIOPE: oh my, yoU really are qUite hot and bothered aboUt this. are yoU sUre yoU're not Unnecessarily blaming yoUrself for her death?   
ROSE: Could be. That's a valid interpretation of my actions. An alternative interpretation is that I'm blaming you.

rose considers these options for a moment. when she thinks aboUt it, the trUth of the matter

Can you not?

CALLIOPE: very well.   
CALLIOPE: so. yoU said yoU'd come to bargain. what do yoU have to offer in retUrn for this favoUr? besides my life of coUrse.  
ROSE: Where was this backbone when we were fighting your brother?  
CALLIOPE: we've all changed, lovely. and we'll continUe to, with lUck, for a very long time.  
CALLIOPE: now, to bUsiness. the thing i want most from yoU is yoUr forgiveness.  
ROSE: My forgiveness?  
CALLIOPE: not for myself of coUrse. my self-esteem might not be the greatest, bUt it doesn't rely on yoUr approval, seer.  
ROSE: No, I got that. I'm saying that's going to be hard.  
CALLIOPE: my dear poor sweet sweet sweet mate has sUffered qUite a bit withoUt the radiant presence of yoUr love, stepmother.  
ROSE: I am not your stepmother.  
CALLIOPE: a darkness grows within my dearest's soUl for each passing day. what will it take for yoU to forgive and forget, rose lalonde?  
ROSE: For me to forgive? A hundred years. Two hundred. When every human on Earth C who caused death and suffering in the name of Jane Crocker is dead, when the open wound she's placed upon the soul of my species is closed. I might consider forgiving. Maybe.  
ROSE: Not that the victims will have found any solace in that time. Highblood trolls live so very long, their pain will remain in this world for a long, long time.   
ROSE: Perhaps we'll figure out widespread immortality before that, and everyone on the planet can keep holding on to the fresh scars of Crocker's fascism.  
ROSE: Regardless. I am indeed a Seer, as you say. A keeper of truth. And know, Muse, that wars may come that eclipse this one by a thousand orders of magnitude. The sun may swell up and swallow the evidence of every crime ever committed on this planet. This universe may collapse in on itself, taking with it everything that ever lived here.  
ROSE: But I will never forget what she did.  
CALLIOPE: they.  
ROSE: Pardon?  
CALLIOPE: they use they now.  
ROSE: Oh. Then I'm sorry. I will never forget what *they* did.  
ROSE: Or didn't, as it were.  
ROSE: Which is to say, anything.  
CALLIOPE: pardon?  
CALLIOPE: oh. i see.

we sit qUietly for a moment.

Fine, I'll talk.

ROSE: John, I expected. Ok? He's a total pushover, I've known the man my whole life and he's never made a single weighty decision, on anything. He'll make a fool out of himself for your amusement, he'll write genuinely insightful birthday letters, he'll fight the forces of evil for however long it takes without rest, but the moment he has to deal with the slightest trace of moral ambiguity or complex emotional themes he just locks up. But Roxy? I'll admit I didn't know my mother all that well, but Roxy and I spent a lot of time here on Earth C and I never saw anything that... nothing suggested to me... I just don't understand how she... how they could be so...  
ROSE: Stupid.

she says it like it's a cUrse.

CALLIOPE: they had a lot to deal with, love. a collapsing marriage, a son to raise, can yoU really blame them for seeking stability and companionship with an old friend? yoU said it yoUrself, yoU forgave john becaUse yoU knew him, yoU Understood his follies, and he was dear to yoU. we all need love.  
ROSE: She *had* love. With me. With us. Harry was practically part of the family, as much time as he spent hanging around my daughter. Her, their cosmically imparted hero title literally calls them out as a dissident, but instead of going Robin Hood they just stand quietly by the state's side as people suffer and die.  
CALLIOPE: i  
ROSE: I get what you're trying to do, Callie. Ok? Turning my old psychology shtick back at me, trying to get me to admit that my vitriol is just as much about me as it is about them? Fine. It is. But I'm just not willing to let this go. It's not like it's even my choice, not completely. If you haven't heard, and you have, my mother has gotten themself branded an enemy of the rebellion, and that's not something I'm going to just walk back on because of your sweet words.  
ROSE: I have a world to fix first. Try again in a hundred years.  
ROXY: k

roxy is also sitting at the table. they have been from the very beginning of this conversation, bUt i did not describe their presence, and this sUfficed to hide them, even from the prodigioUs powers of the seer.

This flattery isn't painting you in nearly as sympathetic a light as you might think.

ROXY: rose  
ROXY: i get it now  
ROXY: thanks

roxy is wearing a pair of aviator sUnglasses, similar to the pair Used by their departed son. they serve a similar purpose as they did for him, hiding their exact emotional reaction to rose's words behind a coat of darkness. as they take hold of the ring, lifting it gingerly from rose's open hand, the cracks slowly peel off its sUrface, lifting into the air and spiraling into a criss-crossing constellation of scars. with their other hand, roxy grabs the cracks from oUt of the air and places them ever so gently on their glasses.

ROXY: im sorry mom

they put the ring back into rose's palm, and then their body radiates with a blackness that spreads from them, to me, to the whole hoUse. everything bUt rose herself shines with it.

and then we are gone, and rose stands alone in a field.


End file.
